Simple Loose Leaf Tea Box Review + Coupon – March 2018

Simple Loose Leaf is a monthly loose leaf tea subscription box. Choose from the Classic Tea Box (which contains some caffeinated teas and some herbal teas) or the Decaf Tea Box.

This box was sent to us at no cost for review.   (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.) 

This is a review of the Classic Tea, $9 a month, box.

About Simple Loose Leaf

The Subscription Box:  Simple Loose Leaf

The Cost: $9/month + shipping. Save with longer subscriptions.

The Products: four different hand-packaged loose leaf teas; this is a review of the standard (caffeinated) box and includes a black tea, a green tea, an oolong, and an herbal tea (the types received per month may vary a little – you won’t always get an oolong, for example)

Ships to: The United States for $2.99 and Canada for $9.49

Simple Loose Leaf March 2018 Review

There isn’t a monthly theme, and there is already brewing information on each pouch of tea (as you will see below), but there was a simple brochure this month:

Here is the booklet that came with this shipment.

4 Reusable Linen Tea Filters

If you are new to drinking loose leaf tea, not to worry. Simple Loose Leaf has you covered with these reusable tea filter bags. I used these to brew this month’s teas and they worked quite well. You’ll get a new set of 4 bags every month, too.

Energized Herbal, 10g

Hmmm. What to say about this one? I’ll start with the ingredients list: ginseng, licorice, peppermint, hibiscus, lemongrass, passion fruit, St. John’s wort, and lemon flavoring. I guess not every tea is going to be something I love and this was definitely not my favorite. I am strongly biased against both lemongrass and licorice in tea (OK, let’s be honest, I just flat out don’t care for either). They were lessened in intensity by being in this blend but I still picked out both as being quite strong.

Royal Golden, 10g

This one is more up my alley. This is a Chinese-style black tea that is just a touch smoky. This is something I’ve really been into lately and I’m a little sad to say that after having this for only a couple of days, I’m all out of this one (and it’s not in the Simple Loose Leaf shop yet). Anyway, I was a big fan of this one.

Pinhead Gunpowder, 10g

This is a green tea and another one I was a huge fan of (it’s also gone – I sit at my desk at work and drink tea all day long). This is an Asian-style green tea (as opposed to something more familiar to a Western palate) and it definitely has a smokiness to it. I wasn't always fond of that smokiness, but I’ve acquired the taste in the past year or so. Gunpowder tea always comes in little pellets like this, though they unroll as you brew it.

Sky at Sunset, 10g – Buy 2 oz bag for $7.78

This one is a citrus herbal and I enjoyed it quite a bit. This has hibiscus, lemon peel, orange peel, rose hips, and rose petals, as well as a bit of lemon flavor. I like lemon flavor (just not lemongrass, which is something totally different) and the elements here all blend together quite nicely. I’d suggest brewing with rather a large amount of tea as the big pieces of peel, while beautiful, don’t add a ton of flavor on their own. This one would definitely work iced, as well.

And something I totally didn’t understand at the time (and still don’t)…these guys all got really excited when I made the teas to try. Every single one of them was in the kitchen (only Madison stayed upstairs). Not sure what they thought they were going to get, but the kitchen got a little crowded and I had to be super careful with the hot water.

Verdict: Only one of these teas was available in the Simple Loose Leaf shop, and it was not available in the 10g size, so I didn’t provide a total value. This subscription is only $11.99 (including shipping to the US), so you can think of this as getting four teas for $3 each. There’s enough in each bag to brew about 5 cups (if you measure), which works out to about 60 cents per cup, with the bags thrown in as a nice extra. Everything had a lovely appearance and I enjoyed most of the teas (one just happened to have not one, but two ingredients I don’t care for, but that’s the luck of the draw with any subscription box). I also think there’s some value to a discovery service since you can purchase larger quantities of some of these in the Simple Loose leaf shop if you find one you particularly enjoy.

To Wrap Up:

Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, boxes ship on the first of the month so your first box would be April’s.

Coupon - Use code SUBADDICT to get $2 off any Simple Loose Leaf order!

Value Breakdown: At $11.99 per month (including shipping), you are paying about $3 per tea.

Check out all of our Simple Loose Leaf Team Box reviews and the Drinks Subscription Box List for more tea subscription boxes!

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

What did you think of Simple Loose Leaf?  Do you get any tea subscriptions?